1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of chemistry. More particularly, the present invention relates to the field of smoke compositions for use in marking, signaling, and obscuring.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior smoke compositions suffer from low burning rates, thus yielding insufficient amounts of smoke in limited time intervals. These smoke compositions are thus deficient in providing smoke for tracking spinning aircraft where high rates of smoke generation are required
Typical prior art smoke compositions include a dye, an oxidizer, such as KClO.sub.3, and a binder such as sugar or polysulfide The binder-KClO.sub.3 burned yielding heat which turned the dye into a gaseous state. The gaseous dye then cooled forming the cloud of solid dye particles. This process is inefficient since pyrolyis and oxidation of the dye takes place during the heating stage due to inherently high temperatures produced. These compositions, due to the presence of oxidizers such as KClO.sub.3 are hazardous to process since they are friction sensitive. Further, these compositions have a tendency to flame in air producing no dye smoke color. In order to use these prior art smoke compositions, then, they must be enclosed in a cannister with a smoke outlet such as a nozzle to avoid contact with air during deflagration.